Medius Genus
by Sadainea
Summary: Everything is not what is seems in Hermione Granger's world. She carries a dark secret that threatens to tear everything she cares about apart. Who will stand by her in spite of everything and who will condemn her for it?
1. Chapter 1

_Fire, heat, a blazing inferno twisted and danced around her. Hermione screamed, terrified of what was happening. It took her a few moments to realize the though the fire was whipping around her and licking her skin, burning away her clothes, it didn't burn her, she glanced down at her hands and they were coal black. She flexed them. They felt stronger than they had ever been. Her gaze traveled up her arms to where cracks in the coal showed the burning inside her. Brilliant, scarlet embers peered through the openings in her flesh. Though the fire had burned away all of her own clothing, she noticed that you couldn't make out any of her personal regions, nipples or otherwise, through the blackness that her body had been encompassed by._

 _She turned, looking around at where she was, taking in her surroundings for the first time. The ground was charcoal, the trees burned to ash. The entire area appeared to have been an open field, but it could have been a forest for all she knew. The fire burned hot enough that nothing stood where it touched. She turned completely around and standing there, a few feet from her back was a huge male figure that had the same appearance as her. Easily two meters high, his black hair was long, and hung in strands in front of his face. Hermione stepped away._

" _WE'RE COMING!" he shouted at her._

" _No," the younger woman whispered to herself. "No, No. NO!" she turned away from him, only to find him in front of her again._

" _WE'RE COMING!" he shouted again. The hulking man stepped towards her his hand outstretched towards her. "You are one of us. You will help us."_

" _NO! I WON'T! I WON'T!" Hermione fell backwards in her haste to get away from him. Desperate to wake up and get away from this hellish nightmare. She scrambled away, using her hands and feet to crab walk backwards. The creature drifted ever closer to her, his feet never touching the ground. His hands reached for her again._

"Hermione!" the brunette witch flew from her bed screaming. Before she knew what she was doing she had run across the room and was bent over, with her back to the corner, her arms wrapped around herself. She breathed deeply trying to quell the deep fear she felt and the shaking of her shoulders. Her breath was ragged as she trembled.

Ginny reached for her slowly. "Hermione, are you okay?"

The witch in question jumped at the sight of the hand reaching for her and her head snapped up. "Gin, yeah," she whispered breathlessly. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a nightmare. A horrible, terrifying nightmare. I think...I think maybe I need to take a walk. I need to clear my head."

Being an eighth year student had it's advantages. Since all of the students who came back to finish their education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were all of age, Dumbledore had decided that it was rather pointless to enforce a curfew on them. When the elder wizard had come strolling into the hall, after Harry had defeated Voldemort, he looked horrible. The Headmaster wouldn't talk about what had happened to him after he had _died_.

Hermione left the tower completely dressed in her pajamas, only having taken the time to slip on a pair of shoes before heading out of the portrait door. She hurried down hallways and passed sleeping portraits as fast as she could, headed towards her Headmaster's tower. By the time she reached the stone gargoyle who guarded the entrance, she was running. She shouted the password at it and it sprang aside. The time wasn't horribly late, just past midnight, and she hoped to catch the Headmaster before he turned in for the night.

Her knock on his office door was more of a pound with her fist, the loud banging echoing against the stone for whoever knew how far and for whomever to hear. When the door opened she was greeted by the one person that she was truly hoping to avoid bringing into this situation. Hermione had been born to deal with, the older witch had already been through enough. Minerva McGonagall was looking down at her, stern as usual, though she appeared confused.

Hermione groaned inwardly. She really didn't want her Head of House to know what was going on. The older woman meant too much to her to put her in any kind of danger, and knowing this secret, she would definitely be in danger. All of her life Hermione had been forced to hide what she truly was. Her mother had found herself pregnant with her after a one night stand with a handsome stranger in a bar. When Hermione had turned three Jeanne had married the man Hermione had come to know as her father. They were happy for a while, until the nightmares started when Hermione turned five. They had done everything they could think of and the only thing that worked had been muggle sleeping medications, which made it impossible for her to remember her dreams.

It wasn't until Hermione had turned eleven that the family learned that Hermione was a witch and a half breed; that she wasn't entirely human. The Ministry had forbidden her to speak to anyone about what she was, except for Professor Dumbledore. He was the only Hogwarts staff member who knew what was happening and who and _what_ she was. When she had arrived and he found out that she took the muggle medications to stop her dreams, he had ordered her off of them. He used a spell to block her dreams of the terrifying man until she needed to see them, until there was no other choice and war was imminent. Now the dreams had started again and she feared that the older woman, who owned so much of her heart, would be right in the middle of it if she knew what was going to happen. She had always been there for Hermione and the brunette had no doubts that if she was in trouble, or needed Minerva in anyway, the elder of the two would be there.

"Miss Granger, what on Earth do you think you are doing here at this time of night?" she demanded softly.

Hermione refused to look up at the older woman, knowing from past experience that the older woman would be able to tell that she was hiding something from her. "I have to speak to Professor Dumbledore, now. It's urgent."

"Come in, Miss Granger," came the older man's voice from inside, somewhere near his fireplace. "Perhaps you can convince Minerva that I do not cheat at chess, and to tell me where she hid my lemon drops."

"Professor," she said, pushing around Minerva hurriedly. "I'm afraid that your chess game may have to wait."

His head snapped up to look at her. "Are you certain, my dear?"

Hermione held up her hand in front of her, making sure that the older witch in the room was at her back. She focused hard on her hand, it was easier than she thought it would be, the transformation completely painless, as her hand too the same form as it had in her dreams. She looked back at the headmaster, her look a mixture of defeat and fear. "I don't think there is any room to doubt."

"Then we haven't got much time," he agreed. He turned to the wall of portraits, eyeing those who could contact who needed to be contacted each in turn. "Bring in Arthur and Kingsley. Tonks and Remus should be here as well."

As the portraits did as ordered, he turned back to Hermione. "Do you wish to tell Harry and Mister Weasley? I believe they would like to know as well. Perhaps Minerva as well?"

"Yes," she said, closing her eyes. She didn't want Minerva to have any part in the coming war, but she also knew that in order to win it they were going to need her help.

Minerva finally cut in on their conversation and stepped towards them both reaching a hand for Hermione's shoulder. "What is going on?" she asked softly. "Hermione, my dear, what's wrong? What haven't you told me?" She was shocked, and not a little bit hurt, when the younger witch rolled her shoulder away from her seeking hand.

Hermione answered her question very evasively. "There is a lot that I haven't told you, Professor, partly by my own wishes to not have you involved, and partly because I was forbidden from speaking of it by every Minister for Magic that there has been since I started school. Except of course the idiot that was running things while Harry, Ron, and I were on the run."

"Well, can you tell me now?" Minerva asked.

Hermione glanced at the Headmaster, who nodded for her to continue. She took a deep breath and then began to speak again. "You see, Richard Granger is not my father. I am the product of a one night stand that my mother had with a man that she met in a bar. She had no idea that he wasn't what he seemed..."

A/N - - YAY! New story from me! And a little cliff hanger. Can anyone guess what Hermione is? Hmmm? Anyone? Whoever guesses right gets a shout-out in the next chapter. Doesn't count if I have already told you what she is. You know who you are. As always thank you to my darling Luthearl for all of her inspiration, and to my beta Sela McGrane, because this would definitely suck without her. I love you all.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N - Well, this has been in the works for a while, and since my beta is currently busy moving, this chapter has gone without. Enjoy, and I own nothing!

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Hermione thought that she must know what animals in a zoo felt like now. The stares from Order members, friends, and trusted allies were unnerving. She fidgeted in her seat on the Headmaster's over stuffed chair, nervous under so many eyes, all with probing questions, all searching for answers she didn't necessarily have. They all stood around talking, their voices growing steadily louder, trying to determine what the best course of action was, what her fate should be, whether they should let her fight in the upcoming war. Minerva was caught in a heated argument with Kingsley and Dumbledore. Harry and Ron were faced off with Luna and Neville, the latter two refusing to let Harry and Ron go without them when they had heard that Hermione was in trouble. Tonks and Remus argued with each other. No one seemed to agree on anything regarding her. However long she may have known this was coming, knowing that she would become the freak that people whispered about behind their hands and stared at, it still hurt to see in front of her eyes.

The young witch's eyes drifted to Minerva. The older woman was filleting Kingsley and Dumbledore alive. Her sharp tongue tearing into the both of them, causing the sheepish expressions on both of their faces. Hermione smiled softly. The older witch was furious with the two men for keeping her in the dark about one of her 'cubs', a term that she had heard the green eyed woman use to refer to her students several times. Hermione knew that Minerva cared for her as more than just her student. They were friends, and Minerva was furious that Dumbledore and Kingsley had forced her to lie to her mentor. The younger witch looked away. She stared without seeing at the floor in front of her, absentmindedly rubbing her thumb against her palm.

"Hermione!" Minerva's shout startled her out of her thoughts and her eyes snapped up to meet emerald green orbs. The elder witch knelt in front of her and took her hand, inspecting the palm. Hermione looked at it, noticing immediately the burned skin and cracking. Minerva pulled her wand, intent on trying to heal the skin but the brunette pulled her hand away.

"It's ok. It doesn't hurt. It happens when I don't think about what I am doing. It's normal." Hermione whispered. It took only a moment of focus on the afflicted area before it returned to normal flesh. "I guess I will have to remember that in the future. Hiding from him is going to be hard enough without that happening every time I lose focus."

Hermione could hear Harry and Ron sneering from the far side of the room before either of them ever spoke. "Are you sure you intend to hide from him?"

The brunette witch couldn't hide her shock. Of all of the people in the room she hadn't expected that tone of voice to come from her two best friends.

"I mean, if this thing is coming for her, if means avoiding war, give her to them. She has lied to all of us, who knows what else she could be lying about. We can't trust her. She may very well be helping these things to get here and bring about a second war," Harry snapped.

Hermione could, in a way, understand their reluctance to trust her, even if it did hurt. Having been on the run and unsure who to trust, she was sure that finding out that one of his best friends wasn't what every one believed her to be must have been a devastating shock. Harry had so few true friends anyway, it hurt her to know that she had hurt him so badly, but the fact that he completely misunderstood the situation also really ticked her off.

"You are completely missing the point, Harry. I may be his daughter, biologically, but it isn't me that he really wants. Giving me to him, while it might slow him down for a little while, he would still come after this world. He wants what was taken from him and isn't willing to take no for an answer," Hermione hissed at him.

"And yet you still haven't told us exactly what was taken or how this should be of any importance to us," Harry snapped.

Hermione sighed. She placed her head in her hands. This was even harder than she thought. Most of the adults in the room seemed to get it, but Harry and Ron were completely lost, as well as Tonks, Remus, Molly and Arthur. Various other Order members and Aurors were glaring either at her, or at Harry and Ron. It appeared that sides were forming.

"Hermione," Tonks sat next to her. "Perhaps it would help if you start at the beginning. I am not sure I understand what exactly is going on." The pink haired witch laid a hand on her shoulder.

"The beginning? That is a very, very long time ago, and I am not sure I know the whole story, but I can try." The young woman whispered.

"It's alright, dear." Albus sat down on her other side and wrapped an arm around her. His eyes cut to Harry. "You should be ashamed, Mr. Potter."

"I am not sure how to begin." Hermione whispered.

Remus knelt in front of her, taking both of her hands in his own. "Just relax, take a deep breath, and take your time. It will be alright," he whispered, and watched as Hermione did as she was told, closing her eyes, breathing deeply, and focusing her thoughts.

"In the beginning, three were created. Man, made of clay. Angels, made of light. And a third made of fire, called the Jinn. Created with free will this third race ruled the world for thousands of years. When man was given dominion over the earth, a sect of Jinn, known as the Shayateen became resentful, believing the Sons of Adam were nothing more than savages. For centuries these shayateen have been lying in wait. But there are a few who have been watching, guardians who have sworn their bloodlines to protect man, and all that is good. And ensure that darkness never overtakes this world. Man has all but forgotten the Jinn ever existed. It is time for him to remember. At least, that is how I understand the story goes. I know that the guardian exist. Mr. Granger, my father is one of them. He was supposed to watch over me and my mother, and fell in love with her," Hermione's head was bowed and she stared at her hands, dwarfed by Remus's larger ones. "I didn't have a choice but to lie to you, Harry. I was forbidden from speaking of it, ever. Unless the prophecy was to come true, I was never to speak of what I am."

"So what? Your little fairy tale is supposed to make us believe you? That doesn't explain what you are. Stop speaking in riddles and just say it Hermione." Ron hissed.

"Fine," Hermione snapped back, "You want me to say it? Fine. I am half Jinn. My biological father is one of the Shayateen."

"So now we have the truth," Harry whispered. He stepped towards Ron, not sure who to trust at this point. "Now what?"

"Now what? Now we have to fight another war but this time, Chosen One," she stood and stepped around Remus and marched over to Harry, "This time it isn't you who has to bear the burden of being at the center of it. This time it isn't you who is going to be hearing things in your head. This time it isn't you who the other side will be after. And frankly Harry, from what I know of the Shayateen, they make Voldemort seem like a tame poodle.

"So please, tell how bad this is for you, tell me how you can't trust me, and I will give you just as many reasons why we shouldn't have trusted you during the war. I honestly don't have time to deal with your tantrums or Ronald's attitude. There is too much at stake. If you don't want to help us, then leave." She turned to face the rest of the room. "That goes for anyone who doesn't wish to be a part of this. No one is going to force you to fight, but I cannot do this alone. I can't defeat them by myself." Each face in the room watched her. She looked into each of the sets of eyes that stared at her.

One by one, people began to walk out of the room. Molly and Arthur following Harry and Ron. Molly paused by her shoulder. "It has nothing to do with you, dear. I simply can't risk anymore of my family. We already lost Percy." Molly whispered. "Come on, Fred, George."

"No, mum, the twins said. "We are staying. We are going to help."

Molly refused to look back as she took a shuddering breath and walked out of the room.

When all was done, only Tonks, Remus, Fred, George, Albus, Minerva, Kingsley, Seamus, Luna, and to her astonishment, Draco and Pansy both stood there. She hadn't noticed them before. "When did you two get here?"

"We followed Potter and the Weasel up. We figured something big was happening when McGonagall's patronus showed up in the library. It was Draco's idea to use notice-me-not spells to eavesdrop," Pansy shrugged.

"I might be a total git, but fire demon things taking over the earth sounds bad. So we need to stop it," Draco grinned. "Count me in, Granger. I'll help, even if Potter and Slug face won't."

Hermione laughed. "The irony of this situation is not lost on me," she chuckled. "Harry and Ron abandon me just in time for Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson to swoop in and take their place." she shook her head and looked around at the rest of the faces in the room. "This is not going to be easy, but I think we can do this."

Minerva walked over and tucked a strand of hair behind Hermione's ear. "We will all be there for you, dear, as long as you need us."

"Thank you, as much as I appreciate it, this is still going to suck."

Everyone in the room chuckled.

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A/N - And that's it. The next chapter will come later! Love you guys! Don't forget to Read and Review!


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